From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Firefly kills Setsu, earning 295 gold + 222 gold, which are split among the three heroes.

"That's too arrogant. They rushed up the high ground and started killing people before even taking down the second tower."

"The Radiant's late-game composition completely crushed the Dire in the early game."

"It feels like the Dire faction is almost over. Even when the Purple Cat was farming at his own second tower, he was still passive and got killed by a high ground push. It's too tragic."

The viewers in the live chat expressed their sympathy for Nightmare's plight.

It wasn't until the 21-minute mark that Alchemist finally got his first Aghanim's Scepter for Void Spirit. At that point, Void Spirit only had 12200 gold after getting the Aghanim's Scepter, while Faceless Void already had 12400 gold, and Queen of Pain and Doom also had 12000+ gold.

Once the Purple Cat got the Aghanim's Scepter, he quickly led his three teammates to use Smoke of Deceit, hoping to turn the tide of the game.

The river rune was about to respawn at the 22-minute mark. The four Dire players used Smoke of Deceit to move forward from the right side of the river and ran into Gu Ran's Queen. The Queen immediately jumped to the upper left as soon as the smoke broke, while Purple Cat used two Void Paths to catch up with her. He used Resonance Pulse to silence her and then used Residual Shadow to pull her in.

[I've hooked the Queen! Any skills to follow up?]

Purple Cat shouted, but his teammates did not respond.

He rushed in too fast, and none of his teammates could follow up with their skills. Instead, his charge broke up his own team's formation.

The Doomsday Bringer suddenly appeared from the side, and as soon as he walked over, he delivered a Doom to the beast that was about to rush in to receive a skill. The Dire formation was completely disorganized, and the Purple Cat in the front row was left without anyone to follow up with skills. It was then jumped in by the Void Spirit, covered, and taken down by the Queen of Pain's damage.

Even if the beast ate the Doom, it couldn't escape. The warlock also used his ultimate to keep the backline bomber in place. This team fight was caused by the purple cat's overly eager initiation, which led to the Dire's defeat again, with three people dying.

"Actually, I understand the purple cat's initiative a bit. He was too hasty. He knew the situation was already very bad and he had to kill someone in this wave. Then, when he saw the Queen jump away, he recklessly used two attacks to initiate the attack without considering whether his teammates could follow up."

The commentators on the main stage are currently showing the audience a replay of the team fight that just happened. After this team fight, Radiant had a 15,000 gold lead and successfully pushed high ground with the Aegis, ending the game in 30 minutes.

[Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!]

[So you're going to pick Orc even if you're playing a Warlock? We'll have you completely dominated.]

The five brothers praised each other in the voice chat channel, and the second game of the BO3 was about to begin.

The Immortal Cup online knockout stage, main stage.

"Alright everyone, after a short break, let's continue watching the second game of this BO3 series. In this game, Sora's team is on the Dire side, and Chalice's team is on the Radiant side. In the last game, Sora's team did a great job of countering the opponent's Alchemist lineup. In this game, we can also see that the Radiant side proactively banned Alchemist. They know that the opponent's Alchemist is also very strong, and banning him is a good choice when their Alchemist lineup is being countered."

Feng Zhuiyi, as the commentator for this match, keenly noticed Chalice's draft intentions. Both sides had used alchemy lineups to achieve very good early-game pressure in the round-robin stage, but they couldn't use them in this match.

"It seems like both sides have solid lineups in this game. Perhaps in such a crucial game, neither side dares to choose overly aggressive pure lane-dominant lineups. They are both considering what to do if the game drags into the late game."

Radiant Chalice Team: Position 1 Terrorblade, Position 2 Slardar, Position 3 Longo, Position 4 Keeper of the Light, Position 5 Treant Protector.

Dire team Sora: Position 1 Kayn, Position 2 Puck, Position 3 Timbersaw, Position 4 Shadow Demon, Position 5 Clockwerk.

YUNO observed the lineups on both sides and found that this game was similar to the last one, with both sides choosing a late-game bias.

"The Radiant lineup has a lot of healing, with Longo, Keeper of the Light, Treant Protector, and Tree of Life. Their push relies on Terrorblade. However, they are relatively weak in the early game. Once the key items are completed, the Dire should be wary of the Radiant's push."

"On the Dire side, it seems to rely more on individual skill. Kayle is similar to an assassin, and Puck and Timbersaw are heroes who need to roam freely in team fights. This game will depend on whether the team on the left has a stronger push rhythm or the individual spearheads on the right have a better rhythm."

Feng Zhuiyi observed the lineups on both sides and made a summary.

As the commentators predicted, the situation in this game unfolded as follows: after the laning phase, the Dire team started to gain momentum, while the Radiant team defended. However, once the Radiant team acquired their key items, they won several good team fights, and the Dire team's damage output was not enough to secure kills. They often found themselves in situations where they severely damaged the enemy front line only to have it slowly healed back up by the enemy.

So the Dire side had no choice but to avoid the fight, but fortunately, their three core heroes were all very agile.

From the Radiant's perspective:

A birdman suddenly appeared on their top lane, cleared the minions with an Echo Slash, and then hooked a tree to escape.

A Puck flashed out from behind the mid-lane second tower, used Illusion Orb and Crescent Slash to clear the minion wave, immediately used Phase Shift, and then teleported to the location where the orb flew away.

In the bottom lane, we saw another Lumberjack. Its Sawtooth Wheel and Death Cyclone crippled the minions, and then it used a long-range Lumberjack Chain Saw to finish off the minions and leave.

It would take at least three people to catch them. Going to great lengths to catch them wouldn't yield much benefit, and failing would be a huge loss. This is because the Radiant's lineup focuses on pushing, making them less adept at ganking. Their strategy is to control the Aegis, push forward, and force the Dire to engage in team fights head-on.

At the 23-minute mark, the Radiant team used Roshan's Aegis to destroy three of the Dire's Tier 1 towers, and after defeating the Cube, they had a 5,000 gold lead.

Knowing that team fights would be difficult, the Dire side relied on their three core players to split push and create pressure. With the minion waves at a disadvantage, the Dire side struggled to find good opportunities to push or initiate team fights, resulting in a stalemate.

"The game is already 26 minutes in. We can see that the Radiant has used Smoke of Deceit again. They're getting really annoyed by the Dire's split pushing. Will they be able to find an opportunity to kill the enemy hero this time? Judging from their route, they're preparing to enter the Dire's triangle area from the right side of the river. It looks like they might actually run into the Dire!"

The commentator sensed an impending major battle, his voice tinged with excitement.

"But it seems like there are a lot of Nightshade players..."

The big fish jumped into the large jungle camp in the Dire triangle area without vision. He felt that the enemy might be jungling here, but unfortunately, the jungle camps here had already been cleared. Lu Chen's Timbersaw ignored the big fish after seeing him and instead aimed at the back row Keeper of the Light - the Keeper of the Light was standing next to the tree in front of the Mysterious Merchant!

Jiangxia's Poison Dog timely cast a Spread spell on the Lumberjack to increase its output. The Lumberjack's Chain Saw hooked in front of the Keeper of the Light, and the ultimate Sawtooth Wheel followed by Death Whirlwind. Kayn, who had just teleported to his own second tower, also used Echoing Slash to stab the Keeper of the Light from behind the Mysterious Merchant, instantly melting the Keeper of the Light's 1200 health.

XS kills FY, earning 418 gold + 258 gold, which are split between the two heroes.

[FY's Dominant Run Ends]

After the battle began, heroes from both sides moved towards the battlefield. Terrorblade hadn't entered the fog of war, but seeing that the enemy had a lot of people, he also rushed over from the mid lane. However, his movements were spotted by a ward placed in the river by the Dire.

[This TB seems like a good target; his teammates are all on the right, and he's coming from the left alone!]

Gu Ran's Puck wasn't originally on the battlefield. When he teleported to his own outpost, he saw Terrorblade's movements and immediately pinged Terrorblade to alert his teammates.